Sat-ND, 04.03.98

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1998, Peter C Klanowski

LAUNCHES

GE-5
on Ariane

Arianespace announced its Ariane rocket has been selected to
launch the GE-5 direct broadcast satellite in late 1998 for the U.S.
company GE Americom, within the scope of a contract signed by
Arianespace with Dornier Satellitensysteme GmbH, a corporate unit of
Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA, Munich).

The GE-5 satellite, based on a Spacebus 2000 platform, is being
built by an Aerospatiale-led industrial team at Aerospatiale's Cannes
plant in Southern France. Weighing 1,760 kg at liftoff, the GE-5
satellite will be equipped with 18 Ku-band transponders. The new
satellite is compatible with both the Ariane 4 and Ariane 5 systems,
and will be launched from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French
Guiana.

With the support of its industrial partners Aerospatiale (France),
Alenia Aerospazio (Italy) and Arianespace (Europe), DASA offered a
complete package, combining the satellite, the launch slot and the
launch services for a flight targeted for the fourth quarter of 1998.

Prior to Flight 107, Arianespace has 41 satellites on order to be
launched, worth an estimated 20.3 billion French francs or 3.4
billion US$. Flight 107 is now scheduled for March 20. An Ariane 40
launch vehicle will be used to place into orbit the Spot 4 earth
observation satellite for the French space agency CNES.

Useless fact: The Volkswagen was originally
called the "Strength-Through-Joy car."

SATELLITES

Comets
tries to reach new orbit

Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) will make a
first attempt to move its Comets satellite to another orbit tomorrow.

As reported, the experimental satellite failed to reach its proper
orbit after a launch aboard Japan's H2 rocket. While Comets has no
chance of getting into the originally desired geostationary orbit on
its own power, it probably can be propelled to an orbit that would
partially allow conducting the planned experiments -- every time it
passes over Japan, that is.

It will take some eight ignitions of the satellite's on-board
thruster to reach the final orbit of 17,700 by 500 kilometers. The
current orbit is 1,870 by 250 kilometers. A NASDA spokeswoman said it
would take until the end of May because the satellite needed some
breaks to recharge its batteries and other technical adjustments had
to be made.

Of course, the ground segment has to be adjusted accordingly --
for instance, motorised dishes have to be used in order to keep
contact with the satellite instead of fixed ones. But their are also
problems with the satellite even if it reaches its new orbit as
planned. Its on-board systems, such as the attitude control, weren't
designed for use in a non-geostationary orbit. And after all:
shifting the satellite will take up so much fuel that it will be
operational for only nine months instead of three years as planned.

Useless fact: In 1976 a Los Angeles secretary
named Jannene Swift officially married a 23-kg rock. The ceremony
was witnessed by more than 20 people.

Hard
core stuff

The first Fleet Satellite Communications (FltSatCom) spacecraft
built by TRW Inc. recently celebrated its 20th anniversary on orbit,
TRW said in a press release.

I don't find this excessively interesting, but on the other hand
it provides at least a nice overview of the system. Maybe you're into
this kinda stuff.

The U.S. FltSat system consists of a constellation of four
operational satellites in geosynchronous orbit. Each satellite has 23
communications channels in the 244-400 megahertz range, providing
worldwide tactical UHF communications to the U.S. military. The
satellites are hexagonal structures, weighing 2,300 pounds on-orbit.
They have an 18-turn helical UHF receive antenna and a deployable
parabolic UHF transmit antenna.

FltSat was the first operational military communications system to
operate at UHF frequencies, and it was the first system to be able to
communicate to forces in the field with small, inexpensive terminals
aboard mobile platforms such as aircraft, ships and submarines.

The first FltSatCom satellite was launched on February 9, 1978. It
had a five-year design life. Seven additional FltSatCom satellites
were launched between 1979 and 1987, and each of these satellites
(except for Flight 6, which along with the launch vehicle was hit by
lightning and lost) outlived its design life by a significant margin.
Four FltSatCom satellites, including Flight 1, are currently
operational, supporting military communications.

FltSatCom proved its worth to the military by providing secure,
mobile communications during the hostage rescue attempt in Iran, the
student evacuation of Grenada, and other contingency operations. [Ah,
that's what we call those "operations" now.]

TRW built eight Fltsat communications satellites at its Redondo
Beach manufacturing facility. FltSat satellites 7 and 8 carry an
experimental extremely high-frequency package that served as a test
bed for the current generation of systems.

Useless fact: The United States has 5 percent of
the world's population, yet consumes 25 percent of its energy
supply.

Satellite
pirates stun Alphastar

Satellite piracy is a hot issue. Many broadcasters that were
affected wouldn't even admit it. However, it's rather easy to at
least disturb a satellite signal by uplinking another signal to the
same satellite. You don't even need a giant dish to do it.

Digital DTH service Alphastar seems to have become the victim of
satellite piracy, too -- which should have been even easier as the
service is currently off air and plans a re-launch in the second
quarter. On of the the former Alphastar channels, an insert appeared,
asking subscribers to fax personal information, such as an address
and fax number, for "upcoming DTH service in the U.S."

Alphastar officials said they had nothing to do with the message:
"Official information about AlphaStar can only emanate from us,
and will be clearly labeled with the AlphaStar logos, so that you
will know that it is us," states Alphastar's Web Site.

BUSINESS

More
CLT-Ufa restructuring

CLT-Ufa and Groupe AB are in the process of finalising a
long-form agreement under which Groupe AB will acquire from CLT-Ufa
65% of the share capital of RTL 9, the Luxembourg-based television
channel.

Subject to a decision to be made by Banque Populaire de Lorraine,
which currently owns 2.25% of RTL 9, CLT-Ufa will hold at least 33.5%
of the channel's remaining shares.

RTL 9, a family entertainment channel, is the leading cable and
satellite channel in France. It will continue to be broadcast from
CLT-Ufa's Kirchberg site in Luxembourg. The channel, which reaches
650,000 homes in Luxembourg, is also distributed via cable to 2.1
million cable households in France and Switzerland, as well as via
satellite to 386,000 subscribers of the TPS direct-to-home (DTH)
service.

Groupe AB is the largest independent producer and distributor of
television programming in France. The Company owns or controls fights
to over 30,000 hours of programming for French-speaking Europe.
Groupe AB, through its wholly owned subsidiary AB Sat also operates a
digital DTH service of 20 thematic channels.

Useless fact: The hydrochloric acid in the human
stomach is strong enough to dissolve a nail.

LAW
& ORDER

EU Commission to review
WorldCom/MCI merger

The European commission has decided to make a thorough
investigation of the merger project announced by U.S.
telecommunications groups WorldCom and MCI, a commission spokesman
said.

The commission's competition officials want information on the two
groups' combined market shares under terms of the planned merger, and
especially in connection with supplying Internet basic architecture
services, the spokesman said. Both companies combined would operate a
major part of Internet backbones.

Under the EU procedures, the commission now has four months to
make a final decision on the project.

One
more from Billy

Useless fact: My favourite Windows 95 program is
DeleteMe.exe. I don't know where this small gem (14 kBytes)
came from. One day, it sat just there in my temporary folder and
chuckled. When run, it simply displays the following message:
"DeleteMe.exe is a leftover from an uninstall program.
You can safely delete it." Of course, I didn't. I never will!
Some programmer out there must've really had a good sense of humour
and especially of self-referential paradoxes. DeleteMe.exe
contains no copyright notice, so just email me and I'll send you a
copy.

RUPERTWATCH

by Dr Sarmaz

Rupert
al dente, part two

Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset is reportedly looking for
opportunities to sell programming. A certain Keith Rupert Murdoch
[KRM] seemed to be involved, and the Italian press interpreted talks
as a sign that Mr Murdoch wants to purchase a controlling stake in
Berlusconi's television holding Mediaset (Sat-ND, 20.2.98.)

Those rumours were a bit exaggerated, but Italy's financial
newspaper MF now reported that Mr Murdoch was indeed interested in
acquiring 25 percent of Mediaset through his News Corp. group.

MF reported that a delegation from News Corp. would meet the
management of Mediaset at the end of next week and that this meeting
might mark the opening of negotiations over the acquisition of a part
of the business.

This minority stake would cost Mr Murdoch the trifle of US$1.7
billion dollars -- even at a time when many analysts think Mediaset,
which is traded publicly, was undervalued. MF reported that News
Corp. might try to finance this by offering an exchange of shares in
its own business. [Of course. Did you think he was going to pay cash
down?]

Mediaset is still controlled by Berlusconi's communications group
Fininvest. Its president President Fedele Confalioneri recently said
that any control of Mediaset by Murdoch was not under discussion. "We
do not have any information about such intentions by Murdoch and we
do not have any interest in handing over."

Eat
Rupert

Poor KRM! Nobody understands him. He is now even under more
attack for alleged censorship to appease the Chinese communist
regime, and according to press reports, the affair is fast becoming
an embarrassment for Tony Blair's Labour government...

...which, of course, enjoyed the support of KRM's tabloids before
last May's general elections (Sat-ND, 1.3.98.) Is it a surprise when
the current government opposes an "anti-Murdoch" amendment
voted through by the House of Lords to a competition bill? The
amendment aims to end the newspaper price war waged by the press
baron, who controls 40 percent of daily and weekly newspaper
circulation in Britain.

Mr Murdoch himself meanwhile had to admit that the hostile
coverage was no longer confined to the "regular Murdoch haters"
[which, by the way, I do not at all belong to.]

However, the explanation he had to offer for News Corp. unit
HarperCollins scrapping a book highly critical of China is totally
ridiculous: "personal reasons."

The author of the incriminated book, former Hong Kong governor
Chris Patten, is not what KRM would exactly call a friend of his. "I
have always been a bit negative about him ever since I thought he was
undermining [former prime minister Margaret] Thatcher." Well,
maybe that's why Mr Patten found himself in Hong Kong soon after that
episode. Anyway, what a bloody nonsense -- no serious publisher would
refuse the chance of making money with a book written by somebody he
or she happens not to be fond of.

KRM, however, seems to hate Mr Patten so much that he even seems
to prefer to pay for his book to be published by somebody else. He
told HarperCollins editors: "Why don't you go and say we would
rather have someone else publish this and if there is any chance of
losing money, we will make it good."

Mr Murdoch unfortunately chose to let his thoughts on democracy in
Hong Kong be known, too. "I think he [Patten] made a bit of a
fool of himself out there after suddenly discovering democracy at the
end of a 100-year rule. If he has discovered it a little earlier, it
might have been a bit more convincing." True, but of course by
not at all Mr Patten's fault who arrived in Hong Kong in 1992 and not
a century earlier. In my opinion, what Mr Patten did in Hong Kong
deserves every respect [and is much more than could be expected of a
conservative politician anyway.]

Mr Murdoch's excuses for not publishing Mr Patten's book are more
than just weak. The facts speaks volumes:

In 1994, HarperCollins released the English
version of a biography on then paramount leader Deng Xiaoping,
written by his daughter Deng Rong.

Murdoch dropped the BBC World Service from his
Star TV Asian satellite service Star TV, this week in1994, after a
request from Beijing following a BBC documentary which in their view
disparaged Mao Zedong.

In 1996, his News Corp. took a 45 per cent stake
in a new Hong Kong-based satellite channel, Phoenix, with partners
including a Chinese state-owned sales and advertising agency.

Phoenix last September became the first
non-mainland satellite TV operation to secure official approval to
broadcast into the prosperous southern province of Guangdong,
considered a lucrative advertising market.

Also last year, News Corp launched a joint
venture Web site with the official mouthpiece of the Chinese
Communist Party, the People's Daily.

Murdoch's British-based Sky News channel
received approval to open a Beijing bureau.

Meanwhile, the former East Asia editor of the Times, one of KRM's
newspapers, claimed that the paper "has simply decided, because
of Murdoch's interests, not to cover China in a serious way."
Times editor Peter Stothard replied in Tuesday's edition that "The
China coverage of the Times is wholly and solely in the hands of the
Editor. I have never taken an editorial decision to suit Mr Murdoch's
interests, nor have I ever been asked to." Which of course
doesn't mean anything as a "good" editor will guess what
the publisher of a certain paper wants to read or not.

The editors at HarperCollins did not, complains KRM. "They
chickened out and got themselves into the position where they were
inventing reasons why they just didn't want to publish it which were
nonsense, leaving me in a completely inexcusable position." Poor
Rupert was even quoted as whining "they screwed it up ... our
people cocked it up." Obviously, KRM expected them to make
business decisions based upon his personal preferences. He should've
instructed them earlier.